I’m a sucker for a Ducati Monster of any taste, however significantly the pre-2001 carbureted fashions. I’ve been in search of a pleasant rider-grade instance for a few years, however by no means acquired impressed sufficient to drag the set off. Till this little chromey man got here alongside. When the itemizing on Convey A Trailer loaded on my laptop display screen, I knew I needed to a minimum of bid. I despatched a textual content to my spouse with the hyperlink and mentioned “BTW, if this stays beneath 5K, I might need to bid” and he or she replied, “KK.” Inexperienced mild, let’s fucking go! Okay, so I went $100 over my authentic self-imposed funds, however I feel she’ll forgive me. So I’m a Ducati proprietor.
Whereas the second-generation might be the extra iconic and recognizable Monster, these early bikes actually helped save the corporate from itself and altered the whole bike business. When designing the Monster, Ducati’s aim was to make a style-conscious city machine, however the firm didn’t actually have any cash to develop a brand new line, so it needed to be a elements bin particular. The engine got here from the 900 Supersport, the body is a evenly modified 851 Superbike, and the upright fork is from a 750 Supersport. When it was put collectively, it was in some way better than the sum of its elements, and kicked off an upright bare bike craze within the bike world.
It’s a comparatively light-weight and highly effective bike, and delivers quite a lot of stuff my BMW GS and Harley-Davidson Livewire don’t. None of this bike’s plusses are rational or workaday, it’s all emotional. In fact it’s, it’s an Italian bike. No one buys an Italian bike as a result of they’re being rational. Hell, there aren’t many American bike patrons who use rational thought wherever within the shopping for course of. We purchase bikes as a result of we’re enthusiastic about them. And so they’re shiny.
In 1999 earlier than the bike switched to gas injection for 2000, Ducati launched a collection of restricted version fashions to expire the elements provide and hopefully increase gross sales. Allegedly 101 Monster 900 Cromos have been constructed, although some say that quantity is inflated as a result of Ducati mucked up the chroming course of and cancelled the run someplace within the center. I haven’t discovered an official supply for Cromo numbers, however I don’t actually care. This isn’t a collector piece, I’m going to experience the rattling factor.
The Cromo is clearly named for its chrome gas tank, nevertheless it additionally acquired a number of different tweaks to set it aside from an everyday M900. The Cromo acquired a full spate of carbon fiber trim, together with a carbon rear seat cowl which was faraway from this bike, however is in a field of elements that comes with the bike. Manufacturing unit adjustable suspension was additionally on the playing cards, in contrast to the usual M900s. With 74 horsepower onboard, and a sub-400 pound weight, it needs to be fairly fast, however received’t win any superbike battles. It needs to be loads of enjoyable at my subsequent observe day.
I purchased this instance from the man who purchased it model new and has put each one of many 11,000 miles on the odometer. Again in 1999 he had the bike tricked out with a number of further goodies, together with an aftermarket exhaust, bar finish mirrors, a Corbin consolation seat, a Ok&N consumption, larger carburetor jets, aftermarket gauges with an actual tachometer, and a tinted flyscreen. It wants a belt service and a few tires within the close to future, however contemplating the worth I paid, I’m fairly proud of it.
I’ll be touring for the subsequent three weeks, so I received’t be capable of choose it up from the vendor till late October, however I sit up for digging into this factor as a winter undertaking to maintain my fingers busy. From what I do know in regards to the vendor and what I can inform from the pictures, this factor has been nicely taken care of, nevertheless it hasn’t been sitting in local weather managed garages its complete life, and it’s really been ridden. It’s a superb bike, even when I haven’t laid eyes on it but.
